Didn’t she say that the children’s titles were their birthright? Put that with “collaborate with the Queen”, and “she doesn’t own the word ‘royal’” and I think their thinking is that the institution is bigger than the people in it. One day the head was QEII, next day it’s CIII, soon it’ll be King William IV (?). They see themselves and their children as the current holders of whatever titles they hold, as bestowed upon them by past legislation and letters patent and whatever else. Not granted at the discretion of this person or that.
Which is funny, really, when you think Harry says his dad can with the flick of a hand change his security position, for example. So clearly there is some discretion the monarch can exercise. I suspect they’ll feel the burn of that discretion more when William ascends to the throne.
The irony is that in much the way the titles of Duke and Duchess of Windsor have been forever tarnished (doubt they’d be used again one the lifetimes of my as yet non-existent great grandchildren), so too the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. And with Archie and Lilibet, more American than they are British notwithstanding their grandfather being the actual king, even “Prince” and “Princess” are being diminished. The British royal family will become like any of the continental monarchies, with random rogue princes and princesses living all over the place doing not-BRF things. It’s the start of a new era for the monarchy. I suppose it chimes with the open acceptance of Britain’s diminished worldwide status post-Brexit, openly referred to in parliament and elsewhere. Just not top drawer anymore.
QEII really was of an already bygone era.